Academy of Sciences & Sleep Regression

The girls love going to the Academy of Sciences.  Katelyn participated in arts and crafts.  She colored and cut out this snake mask and wore it around the museum.

Bella still has stranger anxiety, so it was pretty surprising when she went up to one of the workers at the Early Explorer's Cove and handed the lady a book and said, "read."

Katelyn loves to take pictures with her little sister.

Po Po and Gung Gung watched the girls while Mommy and Daddy went to a wedding.  The girls enjoyed taking a walk around the lagoon.

Auntie Leigh-Anne and Uncle Dice got married at Saratoga Springs.  It was a beautiful outdoor venue.  Congrats to the happy couple!

Bella and Katelyn visited Tao Po last weekend.  She has been walking better these days with less pain.

The entertainment during the day was Ashley playing the guitar while Katelyn sang Let It Go.

Bella is going through some sleep regression. The past 3 nights she woke up at 1:30am or 3:30am.  The first night Daddy checked on her to see if she was sick and she seemed fine.  He told Bella to go back to sleep and he would see her in the morning.  She cried on and off and ended up standing for 3 hours and eventually fell asleep.  The second night she woke up at 3:30 am and stood up continuously for 3 hours and fell asleep.  The third night she cried right when Mommy put her in her crib.  She stood from 8:30pm to 3:30am.  She never once laid down.  She is so strong willed and has such great stamina.  Mommy and Daddy are in trouble!  Mommy emailed the pediatrician and he said it's common to have sleep regression at 18 months and standing up sleeping is not uncommon.  Starting a new school could have some impact with her night time sleep.  He said it should pass.

Tantrums is yet another example of Bella's personality.  It's the end of the world for her when she doesn't get her way.  She will kick, scream, cry and throw her body to the ground.  Mommy has been told this will also pass.  Katelyn never exhibited this type of behavior even as strong willed as she is.

Katelyn enjoys her new classroom.  She is able to write all her upper case letters and is now learning to write her lower case letters.

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth

Bella has been learning her different body parts.  She can point to her nose, hair, eyes, ears, mouth and wiggles her fingers.  She is still working on where her toes are.  Take a look.

Summer Time Fun

The girls went to Gilroy Gardens for the first time a couple weeks ago.  The park had many rides Katelyn could go on. This goldfish ride was similar to Dumbo, but did not go as high up.

Katelyn also rode the race cars.  Bella was tall enough to ride on it, but she passed and would cry when Mommy tried to put her in.

Mommy and Bella checked out the waterfalls.

There was a show starring the characters from Super Why.  Katelyn wanted to go down to the stage to see the characters up close.  Bella wanted to copy whatever her big sister did and stood next to the stage with Katelyn.  After the show, all the kids were invited to go on stage to meet the characters.  It was a mad house, but Katelyn was happy to hug Princess P.

The park had all sorts of water play.  Katelyn loved the water spouts.  Mommy left Katelyn's swimming suit in the car, but Katelyn didn't mind getting her dress wet since it was a hot day.

Summer time means Nicholas and Julia are here visiting from Japan.  Katelyn is really attached to Julia.  Julia's mom said when Julia was younger, Mommy use to babysit Julia and now the favor is returned with Julia taking care of Katelyn.  How time flies!  Julia is now 14 and Mommy used to watch Julia when she was 7.

A cousin group picture.

Ashley, Katelyn and the boys gathered sticks and built a tepee in the backyard.

Tao Pao was hospitalized after falling and couldn't walk.  She was so happy when her great grand daughters came to visit.  Mommy is happy to report, Tao Pao has returned home a couple days after this picture was taken.  She's a strong lady for being 92 years old.  She pushes herself to walk despite being in pain, so she can heal faster.

This past weekend, the girls went to the SF zoo.  Bella can say and recognize different animals at the zoo like the giraffe.  Katelyn is really into looking at maps these days and figuring which direction to go.  She told Daddy she wanted to go see the gorillas next and to go straight.

Bella loves train rides.  She says, "choo, choo!" whenever she sees a train.

Katelyn wanted to climb on this lion and take a picture with it.

The girls went to Palo Alto for dinner.  Katelyn and Bella love going into the American Girl store to play with the dolls and got frozen yogurt afterwards.

 
Bella was misbehaving when she got home.  She threw things on the ground, so she had to sit in the corner and have a time out.

On Sunday, the girls had lunch with Aiden, grandma, Auntie Caroline and Uncle Vu in Burlingame.  It was such a hot day almost reaching into the triple digits.

The girls napped in the car and hung out with Nicholas and Julia one last time before they went home for the summer.   Ashley and Katelyn wanted to try braiding Julia's long hair.

Bella wanted to climb up the play structure in the backyard like her older cousins.  She was too little, so she just played on the bottom.  We will miss Julia and Nicholas and can't wait to see them again next year!

Transitions...Growing Up!

A spot finally opened up for Bella at Katelyn's school.  When Lolita heard the news Bella was leaving the daycare, she cried and was sad to have Bella go.  She loves her very much like her own child.  We are fortunate to find a daycare that was so nurturing and fed Bella so well.  Bella loved Lolita's home made arroz con leche and her fresh sopa.

Laura was another one of Bella's care taker.  This picture was taken during Christmas.  Laura always made Bella laugh.

Katelyn was so excited to have Bella go to school with her.  Whenever Katelyn saw one of her friends or teachers, she would wave them down and tell them my baby sister, Bella is coming to school with me.

Bella's first day was as Mommy suspected an adjustment period.  She did cry some.  It's understandable being left in a unfamiliar place with people she does not know for 8 hours.  Mommy and Daddy stayed 30 minutes with her in the morning to help her get warmed up.  The week prior, Bella came to visit the classroom every day to become familiar with the place.  Bella sat down to eat breakfast of bagels and strawberry puree jam.   It's family style, so she got her own servings.

Bella explored the classroom and played with the community helpers.

She especially liked the kitchen area, the baby dolls and the cribs to put them in.

Bella even made a new friend who was curious to see a new toddler in the room.  Bella's first day went okay.  She hardly ate much and needed to be held to sleep before being put down on her cot.  The second day went better.  The teachers said she only cried a few minutes after drop off.   She ate really well, went straight to her cot to sleep and spent a lot of time observing, but by the afternoon was participating in the activities.  The teachers say she is still on the quiet side and Bella doesn't talk much which is total opposite of her loud self at home and at Lolita's.  It will probably take a few weeks for Bella to get use to the room and not cry when she gets dropped off.

Katelyn is also transitioning.  She is going to the kindergarten prep classroom.  She already told Mommy, she will miss all her teachers in her Panthers classroom like Teacher Kathy.

The teachers and Katelyn worked on a book about Katelyn over the last few months as a keepsake of Katelyn's time in the Panthers classroom.  The book contained pictures of Katelyn, her likes, interests and drawings.

Teacher K is K's new primary teacher.  So far, she seems really nice!

This is Teacher E.  She is the lead teacher.  Katelyn spent a week visiting the new classroom for a couple hours a day before fully transitioning.

Daddy brought the girls cupcakes to celebrate being in new classrooms.  Mommy thinks Daddy secretly wanted cupcakes since he has a sweet tooth. 

18 months

Bella had her 18 month appointment last week.  Mommy couldn't make it since she had a meeting.  Bella was apprehensive when she got into the exam room.  She must known what's coming her way.

She did cry a little for her shots.  Daddy picked her up and after a few minutes, she was fine.  At 18 months she is 21.6 lbs (32 percentile), height is 32 inches (52 percentile) and head circumference is 18 inches (25 percentile).

Bella has been talking up a storm lately.  She can probably say at least 30 words and can even say two word phrases.  She is pretty good at repeating words.  She refers to herself as Bella when she sees pictures of herself.  She will say "please" when she wants something and "thank you" when it is given to her.  She loves to say "belly button" and tries to find Mommy's belly button.  She points to the backyard door and says "outside."  Her favorite words are "No" and Stop It!" which she probably picked up from daycare.  She will say "move!" when you are in her way.  Mommy is trying to teach her to say "excuse me" instead.  Mommy's favorite is when Bella repeats, "love you!"



She is becoming more independent.  She wants to do things for herself like brushing her teeth.  Mommy caught the tail end of her brushing her teeth.  She is pretty vocal when she has her mind made up and will say, no!



Bella still really likes to eat, but is definitely a lot more picky!  She is getting to be such a big girl sitting at the table in the kitchen and feeding herself cereal.

Bella doesn't like things to be cut for her.  If she sees you eating a whole piece of something, she will grab for it, like these big grapes.

She soon realizes how big they are for her mouth but continues to eat them.  There's no stopping this girl!

Mommy wanted to trim Bella's hair in the back to make it more even.  Bella would not sit by herself at the kid salon.  Mommy tried holding Bella on her lap, but she would not have it.  Poor girl might be tramautized now.  The haircut literally took less than 5 minutes!

More teeth are finally coming in!  The most visible are her top two and bottom two.  Three more are coming in at the same time.  Bella will sometimes point to he mouth and say, "owie!"

Mommy can't believe Bella is already one and half years old!  Where did the time go?